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Marines provide Holiday Spirit

by Lance Cpl. Erik Villagran

For Marines from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Santa Clause doesn't have a belly or wear a red coat. Santa is lean and wears a flak and Kevlar helmet.

Cpl. Philip M. Steiner, a 24-year-old rifleman from Bridgewater, Va., assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, prepares to catch a small package. The mail clerks in the battalion say without the help of Marines from the other shops they wouldn't be able to get the mail out to all the companies as fast. Clerks said they enjoy giving out the mail because they know it makes the deployment easier for the grunts. (photo by Lance Cpl. Erik Villagran)

Mail clerks from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment have delivered packages to infantrymen at forward observation bases for more than five months. Now that the holidays are coming near, they are playing the role of Santa Claus.

"My call sign on convoys is Santa because we carry the letters like Santa carries his bag," said Cpl. Wilmer A. Morales, a 20-year-old battalion mail clerk from West New York, N.J. "I think it's great that Marines see me as Santa because I make their holidays more cheerful even though they're away from their families."

The mail clerks get the letters and packages out to their fellow Marines at the forward operating bases as fast as possible. Their sleigh is a seven-ton truck led by humvees.

"We pick up mail from the post office every day," said Cpl. Jose D. Moya, a 25-year-old administration clerk from Palmdale, Calif. "We go to each FOB during the week, where we drop off their mail and pick up their outgoing mail."

They begin their days by going to the post office and retrieving the mail for the day. They take a high-back humvee with as many boxes as it can take. It takes more than one trip to the post office to get all the mail. Lately the load has been larger because Christmas is around the corner.

"We've had about four or five high-back loads of mail," Moya said. "We sometimes have to make a trip with a seven-ton truck."

After Marines get the mail to their camp, they obtain help from Marines and sailors from other sections of Headquarters Company to help them sort through the mountains of boxes.

"We wouldn't be able to do it without them," Morales said. "There's so much mail that if one or two people worked on it, we wouldn't be able to do it."

After they sort the mail by company, the clerks get the mail onto a convoy to be delivered to companies in the field. There has been mail in every single logistics run, Morales said.

The clerks are greeted as soon as they arrive at the FOBs. Marines are quick to help unload all the mail and sign for their packages.

"Mail is what they look forward to," Morales said. "They're always asking for mail and their packages. Every time we go out, we make sure they get everything."

Grunts wait in anticipation for their packages every night. The arrival of mail fuels them to continue their hard work.

"The feeling around the FOB is good when Marines see mail, whether it's a package or a letter," said Cpl. Paul W. Bishop, a 21-year-old rifleman from Deschler, Ohio. "Mail is a way to keep and touch and know what's going on back home."

The mail clerks enjoy passing out mail. They know that they've made the deployment a little bit easier for the grunts.

"It feels great giving them their mail," Moya said. "They've gotten to know who we are, and they trust us to bring their packages."

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